ciberidoIt's like that one time I greeted my friend Jack when I saw he was on the same flight as me.

Ha, ha, cute.

But it's really more like a American man named Cal going to Russia and discovering that in Russian (кал) his name means "feces" (putting it politely).

Or a guy named Matt going to Israel and learning that his name means "dead' in Hebrew.

Or how about that perennial butt of jokes, the Vietnamese person named Phuoc who comes to America?

When dealing with names from another culture, people need to learn that the Weeners is not supposed to be "charge someone with a crime!" It's just basic common sense, but of course "9/11 changed everything" you know, so common sense - not to mention common courtesy - are apparently illegal now.

Happy Hours:That said, it has taken on a very bad connotation especially in the western world.

Too bad. There's a lot of things that have "bad connotations", but that doesn't excuse punishing people for it. We don't shame people born on April 20, do we? That'shiatler's birthday, you know, so I guess you'll have to start getting angry at people who have the audacity to have birthday parties on that day. And gods forbid that such a person think they're a good cook, what with using ovens and all.

There is absolutely no evidence that this family in France was in any way expressing support for terrorism, so there is absolutley no reason to punish them.

In England, poppies are a symbol of remembrance of those who died in World War I. But in China, poppies are a symbol of British repression and encouragement of drug addiction. So were the british politicians wrong to wear poppy pins while in China? It certainly wasn't polite, but at least the Chinese didn't charge anyone with a crime for it. Imagine that! The Chinese had more respect for freedom then than the French are having now.

SORGUES, France - A T-shirt worn by a 3-year-old nursery-schooler named Jihad has led to an unusual and politically charged criminal trial here that tests the limits of free speech - and common sense - in a France increasingly ill at ease with its growing Muslim population.

...only in goddamned France. They really need to consider doing something about their racism thing at some point. I mean, they're still somewhere below 1950s America on this shiat, I'm not asking for miracles, but maybe try to lower it to like 30 years behind?

Moriel:Happy Hours:That said, it has taken on a very bad connotation especially in the western world.

Too bad. There's a lot of things that have "bad connotations", but that doesn't excuse punishing people for it. We don't shame people born on April 20, do we? That'shiatler's birthday, you know, so I guess you'll have to start getting angry at people who have the audacity to have birthday parties on that day. And gods forbid that such a person think they're a good cook, what with using ovens and all.

There is absolutely no evidence that this family in France was in any way expressing support for terrorism, so there is absolutley no reason to punish them.

Well, except for everything written on the kid's t-shirt.

Sorry to point out the truth.

4/20 is also celebrated by pot smokers. It's also the day of the Columbine shootings

Nobody thinks this kid's mother is a terrorist sympathizer because her kid was born on 9/11. They think she's a terrorist sympathizer because she makes her kid wear a t-shirt saying he is a bomb and because she named him Jihad and proudly proclaims his birthday as the date of the biggest terrorist attack in the history of the world.

Like I said earlier, it probably should be protected speech, but France - and most of Europe does not have the same First Amendment rights to free speech that exist in the US. She is clearly celebrating terrorism. If I saw her and her kid walking around in the US I would tell her she was a piece of shiat and should go back to wherever the fark she came from. The only reason I wouldn't spit in her face and kick the shiat out of her is because that would be illegal and I don't want to get arrested. Telling her that she's a piece of shiat and should leave my country is protected speech though.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I sort of doubt Adolph is a very popular name in Germany anymore. And Hitler is a perfectly valid surname to have, but I bet a lot of people who had that name went out of their way to change it. I've never met anyone named Adolph or Hitler.Naming your kid Jihad is defensible though perhaps a bit insensitive. Making him wear a t-shirt that says he is a bomb and proudly proclaiming his birthday is 9/11 is not defensible.

She shouldn't be charged with a crime, but IMO France should deport her ass back to Morocco.

Moriel:ciberidoIt's like that one time I greeted my friend Jack when I saw he was on the same flight as me.

Ha, ha, cute.

But it's really more like a American man named Cal going to Russia and discovering that in Russian (кал) his name means "feces" (putting it politely).

Or a guy named Matt going to Israel and learning that his name means "dead' in Hebrew.

Or how about that perennial butt of jokes, the Vietnamese person named Phuoc who comes to America?

When dealing with names from another culture, people need to learn that the Weeners is not supposed to be "charge someone with a crime!" It's just basic common sense, but of course "9/11 changed everything" you know, so common sense - not to mention common courtesy - are apparently illegal now.

Gary goes to Japan, but they're too polite to tell him to his face that his name means 'diarrhea'. There was, however, some barely concealed mirth about Princess 'Big Hole' (Diana), at least until she went splat.

Cute Thai girl named 'Kittiporn'? Plan to do any traveling abroad?

CSB, of sorts:There is a whole lot of variation in the spelling of names in Indonesia, as folks tend to give their kids western names, Chinese names, Arabic for the hard-shell Muslims, and what is most astonishing is the number of Muslims with names obviously lifted from the Hindus: Rama, Wisnu, Brama - and of course Sita, who was the beloved of Rama.

Except for this one spoilt little rich miss in the communications school where I taught for six years. Her parents had for some ungodly reason named her for the aforementioned Sita, but chose to spell it (presumably in a more fashionable English style) 'shiatta'.

I did a double-take, then a triple-take, the first time I saw that name on a class list. Then the cool part of the CSB. I was utterly torn between the urge to take the young lady aside and clue her in (my god she's almost twenty - does she not realize... has no one ever told her...??), and the equally strong feeling that I should not tamper with this explosive matter at all, and simply leave her to deal with the merriment she will encounter when she travels to an English-speaking country (this was, I confess, in part also motivated by a sense of self-preservation: why horn in to someone's life with news like this).

It should also be mentioned that Bahasa Indonesia does not make a distinction between the 's' and the 'sh' sounds; English learners often have a devil of a time distinguishing between 'Sit over there' and you know the rest (why tire out the Fark filter).

In the end I let her be. She was a big girl, drove a nice brand-new nip sedan worth two years of my salary; let her sort it out.

At least her name, smelly though it might seem, was not confrontational, like the Batak student who proudly told us his name was 'Adolf Hitler Sihombing'. Wow, just wow. My first thought was 'rotsaruck when you go traveling, fella'.

Happy Hours:Moriel: Happy Hours:That said, it has taken on a very bad connotation especially in the western world.

Too bad. There's a lot of things that have "bad connotations", but that doesn't excuse punishing people for it. We don't shame people born on April 20, do we? That'shiatler's birthday, you know, so I guess you'll have to start getting angry at people who have the audacity to have birthday parties on that day. And gods forbid that such a person think they're a good cook, what with using ovens and all.

There is absolutely no evidence that this family in France was in any way expressing support for terrorism, so there is absolutley no reason to punish them.

Well, except for everything written on the kid's t-shirt.

Sorry to point out the truth.

4/20 is also celebrated by pot smokers. It's also the day of the Columbine shootings

Nobody thinks this kid's mother is a terrorist sympathizer because her kid was born on 9/11. They think she's a terrorist sympathizer because she makes her kid wear a t-shirt saying he is a bomb and because she named him Jihad and proudly proclaims his birthday as the date of the biggest terrorist attack in the history of the world.

Like I said earlier, it probably should be protected speech, but France - and most of Europe does not have the same First Amendment rights to free speech that exist in the US. She is clearly celebrating terrorism. If I saw her and her kid walking around in the US I would tell her she was a piece of shiat and should go back to wherever the fark she came from. The only reason I wouldn't spit in her face and kick the shiat out of her is because that would be illegal and I don't want to get arrested. Telling her that she's a piece of shiat and should leave my country is protected speech though.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I sort of doubt Adolph is a very popular name in Germany anymore. And Hitler is a perfectly valid surname to have, but I bet a lot of people who had that name went out of their way to chang ...

I read somewhere that one of Der Fuehrer's relatives, also bearing the surname Hitler, was something of a standing joke in the community where he lived. You know, pranksters would sieg heil him and such.

lack of warmth:God-is-a-Taco: France is so farked.I hope a get a chance to visit it while French people are still living there.

I am from the future and I am telling you, learn Mandarin.

Not gonna need to do that - at least not in our lifetimes. Every country south of the US speaks Spanish (if you consider that Portuguese is just drunk Spanish, which I do). I'm not sure how many people that is, but those are countries which are going to be a huge part of the world economy in the future. They already are now and they will only get stronger in the future.

China is definitely a huge economic force but if you grew up speaking English it makes no sense at all. Most Chinese people who come to the US learn at least speak a little English even if they do have bad accents and aren't quite fluent. Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world, but I can't recognize a word of it. OTOH, I've managed to learn a handful of words in Japanese - not enough to have a conversation but it's an interesting contrast to my complete lack of understanding of Chinese.

Spanish, I can get by in. I'm certainly not fluent but it's much more relevant than Mandarin if you live in the US and I don't think that will change anytime within the foreseeable future.

Aren't there something like 3,000 Chinese characters that make up their version of the alphabet? We've got 26 and it's considered so difficult that the cops ask suspected drunk drivers to say it backwards. Do they do similar field sobriety tests in China?

I'm not even going to attempt to learn Mandarin. I'd be better off improving my Spanish or even learning French, German or Russian. Even Russia has an alphabet that looks crazy to us English speakers, but it's not nearly as convoluted as Mandarin. I still have no idea how CCCP translated into USSR.

doglover:Happy Hours: Like I said earlier, it probably should be protected speech

Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences of said speech. It just means the government can't stop you from expressing yourself.

She's gonna send her kid to school with a shirt that says "I'm a bomb. Jihad, born 9/11" that's entirely OK. There's no reason the government should let her ever see her child again, though.

I get kind of sick of people repeating this stupid mantra. I could say Obama is a Kenyan-born homosexual Muslim who wants to destroy the US and the government won't lift a finger to stop me. Yes, there would be consequences if I said that. People would think I was crazy and it might close some doors for career advancement.

But if I just added a few words and threatened his life or encouraged other people to assassinate him, the Secret Service or the FBI or some other government agency would be breaking down my door before the sun came up....and the sun is coming up right now.

What you're saying applies to any country in the world. If someone living in the Soviet Union under Stalin said that Stalin was a tyrannical dictator they would have faced consequences of their speech too, but they still could have said that.

Someone living in North Korea could say that Kim Jong Un has a small penis. They are "free" to do that. I don't think it would go very well for them, but they could probably say those words.

It's a meaningless statement unless you distinguish that which the government will do to you and what society in general will do to you.There are limits and maybe I didn't read the article closely enough, but I'm not even sure exactly what she's charged with. I assumed she's being charged with something since it mentioned criminal courts.

But the statement that freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences is like saying I'm free to commit murder as long as I don't mind being convicted of murder which still carries a potential death sentence in much of the US. I am most certainly not free to commit murder.

/And I don't think Obama is a Kenyan-born homosexual Muslim (just to set the record straight)//And Kim Jong Un does have a small penis - and he enjoyed every inch of Dennis Rodman's dick when they got together.

Lsherm:Told of the indignation produced by Jihad's shirt, the single mother, who works as a secretary, apologized for causing trouble and said she had no intention of conveying a political message via her toddler.

I don't buy this, because no matter how stupid a 35 year-old single mother you are, you know this:

"I am a bomb," the shirt said on the front. The back read, "Jihad Born Sept. 11."

Isn't the kind of t-shirt you put on a three year-old if you don't have any intention of conveying a political message. The kid doesn't know any better, but if the parent claims they don't, that's asinine.

I think the discussion really ought to be about wether or not the family deserves jail time for percieved differences in opinion. Or in other words, there's a internationally known thought-crime trial going on in France right now. That's what's farked up about this situation. The trollish mother should be able to go tback to work tomorrow, and the kid should be back in his crib tonight, and the conservative morons in the French government need to suck it up, thoughts should never be criminalized.

Perhaps the French population ought to demand a freedom of speech clause in their constitution. In fact I don't know of any country in Europe that has such a clause.

Moriel:For crying out loud, the ignorance in this thread is astounding. I'm just a nobody from Texas, but even I know that "Jihad" is a perfectly normal name for Muslim men. Don't believe me? Look it up!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad_%28disambiguation%29

For the ignorant who are also too lazy to click the link, here's a list of people named Jihad who are famous enough to hav etheir own Wikipedia pages.

Jihad Azour, Lebanese (Christian) Minister of FinanceJihad Ballout, Communications Director of Al ArabiyaJihad Harik (born 1960), Lebanese American television actorJihad Helwi (born 1985), Lebanese football playerJihad Ahmed Jibril (1961-2002), assassinated son of Ahmed Jibril, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General CommandJihad Khodr (born 1983), Brazilian professional surferJihad Makdissi, Foreign ministry spokesman of the Syrian government from 1998 to 2012Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, Syrian speaker of parliament

The only terrorists mentioned in that article are the pre-school teacher, the mayor, and the prosecutor who have nothing better to do than use their own ignorance and fear to try and justify destroying the lives and innocent people!

Yeah um sorry. If it were just jihad I could see your point, but it's Jihad AND the 9/11 bit AND the bomb bit. It's like saying

I love sex...... With little girls..... In the back of my van that's says 'free candy"

The pieces add up to a greater whole. This chick if probably just a lefty troll tourist trying to be controversial and make a point about western imperialism or social justice or some other BS. Like all those Mao and Pol Pot lovers back in the 70s. "Daddy paid for my college, now I feel guilty and now I'm totally down with struggle and stuff"

cman:Bathia_Mapes: cman: Only in America can you get away with all of that

Are you serious? If children in U.S. are getting in trouble for biting a toaster pastry in what appears to be a gun or for drawing a picture of a gun, what makes you think an American school wouldn't go all zero tolerance on the kid? They wouldn't even take into consideration that he's only 3-years old.

Maybe you are right. However I am sure as hell right when it comes to the naming of your child part

In America, you are free to be named 'Jihad'. But telling people your name in public will get you arrested for Making Terroristic Threats.

Are you serious? If children in U.S. are getting in trouble for biting a toaster pastry in what appears to be a gun or for drawing a picture of a gun, what makes you think an American school wouldn't go all zero tolerance on the kid? They wouldn't even take into consideration that he's only 3-years old.

Dedmon:I think the discussion really ought to be about wether or not the family deserves jail time for percieved differences in opinion.

It can be about both. The mother can still be a stupid trollish coont and the French can still suck at freedom of speech. Holocaust denial is still a criminal act in France - they don't take FOS as seriously as we do.

Dedmon: I think the discussion really ought to be about wether or not the family deserves jail time for percieved differences in opinion.

It can be about both. The mother can still be a stupid trollish coont and the French can still suck at freedom of speech. Holocaust denial is still a criminal act in France - they don't take FOS as seriously as we do.

I understand and appreciate your points. I think, however, it's rather universially assumed that the woman is a trollish asshole. I don't really believe it necessitates restating a nearly universal opinion that she's just some obnoxious attention craving social reject.

If the authories in bumfark kentucky wanted to jail and confiscate the children of the grand wizard dragon pony of the ku klux klan, I'd stand up for their rights of freedom of speech, without having to address that assumed fact that the KKK father is an evil bastard.

Back in the late 1980's I worked for a guy who went by the name "Gary". Since it was clear that this wasn't his given name I once asked him what he real name was. It was Jihad. My response was "Dude, you're named Holy War?" He wasn't amused.

Aigoo:Lsherm: Told of the indignation produced by Jihad's shirt, the single mother, who works as a secretary, apologized for causing trouble and said she had no intention of conveying a political message via her toddler.

I don't buy this, because no matter how stupid a 35 year-old single mother you are, you know this:

"I am a bomb," the shirt said on the front. The back read, "Jihad Born Sept. 11."

Isn't the kind of t-shirt you put on a three year-old if you don't have any intention of conveying a political message. The kid doesn't know any better, but if the parent claims they don't, that's asinine.

Particularly given that the mother and the uncle (who bought the shirt) were born in Morocco, not France. Morocco is a Northwest African nation whose main religion is Islam and whose primary language (and official language) is Arabic. I call bullshiat on the mom's and uncle's claims. No one in their thirties--and no one from an Arabic-speaking nation whose main religion is Islam claims not to know they're causing a stir and not to intend to do so by naming a child born on September 11 "Jihad" and putting the child in a t-shirt that states he is an explosive device.

If you had read the article you would know that the Uncle was born in France!

Omahawg:ha! same age as my 9/11 baby......which will mean about as much when he's my age as my friend from elementary school born on the 'day of infamy' december 7

Agreed the day will decrease in significance to a new generation, but the date itself will remain more relevant than December 7 if only because that event is referred to as "Pearl Harbor" or the Pearl Harbor attack, etc, rather than referred to by date, as 9/11-September 11 will continue to be.

Dedmon:I understand and appreciate your points. I think, however, it's rather universially assumed that the woman is a trollish asshole. I don't really believe it necessitates restating a nearly universal opinion that she's just some obnoxious attention craving social reject.

If the authories in bumfark kentucky wanted to jail and confiscate the children of the grand wizard dragon pony of the ku klux klan, I'd stand up for their rights of freedom of speech, without having to address that assumed fact that the KKK father is an evil bastard.